


First, Last, and Other Kisses

by bethfury



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/F, F/M, Mass Effect Kiss Battle 2013
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-14
Updated: 2013-02-14
Packaged: 2017-11-29 07:20:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/684345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bethfury/pseuds/bethfury
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of vignettes produced during the Mass Effect Kiss Battle on Livejournal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Each Path

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Kaidan/FShep, You Found Me

  
When he was gone, Shepard imagined seeing him in the cockpit besides Joker, waiting to see his face turn to watch her approach.  
  
Or he was waiting around a corner on the Citadel, goofy surprised smile and hours to spare for her.  
  
She pictured him in starlight in her cabin on the Normandy and she saw him in every well trained cadet that delivered her lunch while in custody.  
  
When she was gone, he felt her at his side throughout each day and heard her voice in each silent moment.  
  
His world was fractured light casting shadows in the trees surrounding the ship and the sensation that she was watching.  
  
He rewound each memory and reminded himself of her face in the blue light of her terminal on that first night together.  
  
But in the wreckage of London, the face he kisses is brighter and sharper than any image he had sought. The hands resting on the small of her back aren't the fantasy she had wished for, but the reality she had never thought she would find.  
  
In front of the work crews and rubble, her face is scarred and his uniform is worn but her mouth is soft and his eyes peek open to chart the surface of their moment.  
  
"Took you long enough," she whispered as the world quieted around them.


	2. Numbered Lists

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: EDI/Traynor, First Kiss

"Do humans count all of their kisses?" EDI's voice asked as she approached behind Sam's crouching form.  
  
Sam cleared her throat uncomfortably, turning from her work, "EDI, what prompted this question?"  
  
"Jeff told me about his first kiss today," she explained, "I just found it odd because I do count everything and I didn't think humans did."  
  
"What do you mean you count everything?" Sam sat down beside the server, stopping her work, "You mean your processes."  
  
"No, I mean I keep tally of everything," EDI continued, sitting beside her, "Jeff has accidentally told me he loved me ten times, five times he corrected that he meant the Normandy, two times he tried to explain that he didn't mean love in the way I thought, two times he got flustered and said nothing, and once he admitted what he meant."  
  
Sam caught herself before she grimaced, trying to suppress her jealousy by allowing her embarrassment over her territorial feelings.   
  
"Shepard has tried to explain to me her relationship with Kaidan Alenko five times," EDI rattled off more information, "One time she told me that I wouldn't understand, another time she drank too much alcohol and played me a song to explain, and three times she has used Jeff as a comparison and given up mid-conversation."  
  
Sam laughed, "What about me, what is on your list for me?"  
  
EDI turned towards Sam, moving an arm behind her and leaning closer in, "You have made a facial expression of dislike 80% of the time I've mentioned Jeff and you have answered 65% of all of my questions with a follow-up question."  
  
Sam had marveled at the Cerberus form EDI inhabited, but had not been this close. She was warm against Sam's arm, and softer than she could imagine.   
  
She breathed deeply, pink filling her cheeks, "My facial expression is not of dislike, we should check your recognition protocol."  
  
"Samantha, who was your first kiss?" EDI asked, and Sam could feel her heart race slightly at the question.  
  
"EDI, it isn't important," Sam answered, trying to move away.  
  
But EDI pushed closer, trapping Sam against the side of the server, "You have blushed fifteen times at questions designed to make you view me romantically, your pulse has risen on average ten beats per minute when we've been in a room together, and you've avoided answering my question."  
  
"Her name was Rose," Sam turned to meet EDI's eyes, "We kissed after lights out at my boarding school and what do you mean romantically?"  
  
Sam had pretended her interest in EDI's mouth had been scientific, that any person as trained as she was would be interested in whether her breath would be warm and if her lips would be soft. She had sat and watched EDI talk, wanting to test the processes built in her operating system in how to kiss. How would their mouths match pressing against each other and had Cerberus taught her where to place her hands.   
  
But in her first real test, kissing EDI is as easy as it was kissing Rose. EDI's head tilted and Sam took the chance, delicately moving to capture her mouth. EDI's hands rested on Sam's neck, and Sam ran through a numbered list of each hypothesis that proved right from the tactile feel of her skin to how she knew exactly when to deepen the kiss.   
  
EDI broke the embrace, running a hand over Sam's cheek, "Do you count all of your kisses?"  
  
Sam laughed, "I think I might start."


	3. She Moves She

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: FShep/Samara, After Reaper war is another time another life

"Can a human be a justicar?" Shepard asks with a sleepy voice, and Samara giggles like a woman who hasn't punished and atoned and waited for this being to rest in her arms.  
  
The beaches of Nevos are lined with sands of amethyst and opals, littered from the bursts of supernovas and settling of sediment from creation.  
  
She had never seen this world or these vistas; cliffs hanging over grey crashing seas and stark white homes clinging to the edge. Their room is spartan and small, but she can hear the waves falling against the shore.  
  
Her lips meet Shepard's and the woman relaxes in her embrace.   
  
"This is your second life," she responds, breaking the kiss, "Everything is available to you."  
  
"This is our second life," Shepard meets her eyes, "Everything is available to us."   
  
The beaches of Nevos are lined with lavenders and charcoals and the moons of Phoros are covered in snow and ice. The forests of Sanves vibrate with the footprints of animals and Shepard's lips are still unmapped to Samara.   
  
The wheel turns and she falls asleep with her hands twined through Shepard's hair.


	4. Broken Promises

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Joker/Hilary, Broken

She always had dirt under her finger nails and bare muddy feet. A chubby cheeked surprise baby for his parents who had given up travel for a quiet homestead, she gave them new questions and problems compared to a son that had never learned to run.   
  
"When can I fly?" she had asked, face resting dreamily in hands, sticky from the peaches she would steal from the highest branches in the tree.  
  
Joker had smiled, tucking her braid behind her ear, "The next time I come back, I'll let you ride in my ship."  
  
"You mean Shepard's ship," she gave a devilish grin which he met with a laugh.  
  
He leaned in close, "Don't let the Normandy hear you say that, there is only one person that can make her dance."  
  
Hilary sprinted through the fields around their house, model of the ship heavy in her hands.  
  
"Are you coming back soon Jeff?" she had asked, folding her arms around him as gently as they had taught her.   
  
He kissed the cold metallic surface of the capsule that now held her body, finally returned after clearing the settlement.  
  
"I'll be there soon Hilary, I promise."


	5. Rapture on the Lonely Shore

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Ashley/FemShep, See you at the finish line

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title is a quote by Byron

"I'm sorry I didn't choose you," Shepard breaks the silence as Ash stretches in the chair across from her.  
  
Dream Ashley is older and sharper angles than Shepard remembered but her face is all warmth and memories of dance music thumping in some bar in the Wards.   
  
"I wouldn't have chosen me either," Ashley laughed, leaning in closer, "I was less experienced, less valuable to the team."  
  
"You were valuable to me," Shepard choked out, feeling her eyes begin to flood, "And to Kaidan."  
  
"You were both valuable to me too," she responded, reaching out to wipe a tear from Shepard's face, "And I still wouldn't have chosen me."  
  
"Damn it Ash," Shepard chucked through the tears, "Even in my dreams you argue with me."  
  
"I do more than that in your dreams," Ashley smiled as the view changed and they were both looking down on the final offensive on Earth.   
  
Shepard blushed as Ashley wrapped an arm around her, "I would've brought you some place nicer."  
  
"Tell me about Kaidan," Ashley said quietly as Shepard rested her head against her shoulder.  
  
Shepard coughed violently as reality began to seep in like the blood pooling in the wound across her abdomen, "He's such a good man, I don't want to leave him."  
  
"I would've chose him too," Ashley whispered, rubbing a hand comfortingly on Shepard's back.  
  
"I wanted you both," Shepard frowned, staring at the battle in front of them, "I wanted everything."  
  
"Shepard, I want you to have everything," Ashley's voice sounded happy and Shepard cursed her own guilt, "I want you to have him and I want you to have all of it, and I'll be waiting for both of you when you finally reach the finish line."  
  
Shepard felt her breath begin to race, "But when will I be done?"  
  
Ashley's face broke slightly at the question, and her arm around Shepard tightened, "Not for a very long time, but you're going to save more worlds and swim in distant seas and tell your grandchildren about what it is like to lose a friend."  
  
The noise of destruction seemed to fade as she turned to kiss Shepard, and Shepard could feel her pulse race against Ashley's armor chest.   
  
It was their kiss before Virmire when Ashley had confessed her fear and Shepard had diagrammed the movement of her hand from Ashley's back to supporting her hip as they leaned into her bunk.   
  
It was their kiss in a dark club on the dance floor as Kaidan smiled and raised a glass from the bar.  
  
It was all of the kisses they missed from weddings and births and all of the ones Shepard had imagined from the funerals that littered her calendar.   
  
Ashley smiled underneath Shepard's lips and Shepard forgave herself for lying to her dream.  
  
"I wouldn't have chosen you," Shepard admitted breaking the kiss, "I made the right decision."  
  
Ashley leaned down, kissing Shepard on her forehead, "I know you did."  
  
"Will you stay with me a little while longer?" Shepard asked quietly as Ashley wrapped her arm back around her.  
  
"Of course," she answered, "I'll wait with you until he finds you again."


End file.
